Sat, 10/25/2008 - 4:41am — Sarah
Fox News and Politico carried the now-discredited story of a politically-motivated attack on a white 20-year-old woman who was in Pittsburgh to volunteer for the GOP. She has since come forward and admitted her story was false.She has a history of mental illness; may she find the help she needs.But what of the media -- some of it "mainstream," much of it Web-based -- where the story broke, grew, and spawned outrage?
Shades of Jessica Lynch ... only worse.
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Just to be clear
Jessica Lynch, herself, was a heroine in that sordid chapter of American government deception. She told the truth, the whole truth, to both her superiors and the public from the first time she spoke of her ordeal until she faded from view. That was at a time when neither her superiors nor a sizable swath of the public wanted to hear the truth.
You might consider rewording that "shades of Jessica Lynch" line for the sake of clarity.
CMike, do you remember how Lynch's story was handled?
a. The point I was making was that the story -- a false story -- went around the world with the blessing of the GOP/ Bush/ pro-war media. Lynch was at best an innocent victim, at worse more mistreated by her own government than by the Iraqis.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
There might be a little handwringing about it
It's a small, short-run story about a liar, and it's a happy ending, because the media's preferred candidate is somehow cleansed through the ritual.
What concerns me more is that there's no handwringing about the big fuck-ups.
Try a little compassion
"Liar" is far too harsh; the poor woman is sick, an illness of the mind, and at least as deserving of compassion as anyone with a more obvious physical illness.
The greater question is in how the people who hold themselves out as responsible and ask to be trusted handle these kinds of events. This poor woman's story should have stayed small and unremarked upon until it was confirmed as true and sorted out as to its meaning. What was done instead was exploitive and cruel and threatens the very fabric of civilization. Despicable is too kind a term, but then that is the working ethos for Both Politico and Drudge so don't expect anything from them at all; despicable and destructive are their warp and woof, they are sociopathic institutions, lacking all compassion.
Not to mention...
... WKJM
, which is, er, full of it.
I have to admit that compassion wasn't my first thought; I put it into the politicized fakery category (like this Princeton incident) rather than, say, the self-mutilation category.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Billmon compares this to the Tawana Brawley "story"--
Link for story at Moon of AL.
I must admit that in this case the comparison is a bit strained. Usually Billmon is spot on, but the Brawley thing went on forever, and the important spokeperson played it for all it was worth. McCain's campaign appears to have picked it up from Drudge and has dropped it as soon as the girl confessed. Which, iirc, Brawley never has done.
While at Moon of AL, go to the main page and check out the post on Dennis Ross--who wants to be in charge of the Iran portfolio in an Obama admin. Please, no!! And the post on the econ situation.
Billmon's back in business? _The_ Billmon?
Talk about your classic good news/bad news joke.
Yes, he's back.
And he's posting at Kos.
The really depressing thing is, so is Hesiod. N/T
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
I don't know if it's depressings
Better there, than nowhere. I guess I'm not a very forgiving person, so when I see the results of a broken system I want to fix the system or build a new system -- and not assume that only outside forces are the problem.
[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
The backwards B should have clued people in
It was obviously done with a mirror.
That jumped out at me right off, and pretty much shows the lack of thought on her part. Not saying she is dumb, just not very rational or she would have thought of that.
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot." - Albert Einstein
Not everyone would catch on so quickly
Dyslexic black muggers carrying dull knives and a political grudge being a dime a dozen. Who at Drudge or Politico has the raw wit to see through a claim like that? No one, apparently, or they are all professional liars - take your pick.
Referencing either of them as sources, as though they had any concept of the truth, is a mistake; one is just as much a mouthpiece for the VRWC
as the other.
The backwards B?
That's a reason against it? Seriously? There are any number of ways that could have ended up backwards (writing from the opposite side, for one).
Two things gave me pause to believe this: first, the incident wasn't picked up by the ATM. There is a pretty good range that that picks up. The second was my experience being mugged at gunpoint. I find it hard to imagine that a mugger would "come back" after seeing the McCain sticker. My mugger was constantly paranoid and tried to leave as soon as possible, 30-45 seconds max, and that was because I never have cash in my wallet so he looked through my backpack.
But the backwards B? Not good evidence, IMO. Kinda like making a stink about "Joe" the plumber using his middle name, a rather common thing to do.
Only tyrants rig elections.
Why Did It Take This Story?
To elicit concern for how the media reports things? This has been going on all year long, with an even larger example of walking a non-story before it was researched (RFK smear) available. This is not to say that the coverage of this story wasn't bad, but let us not pretend it in any way matched the walking out of the many other fake political stories, this year. Really, how far did this story go and for how long before it was debunked? It seems rather quickly, to me.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...